This invention relates to a method and apparatus for preparing sugarcane stalks for subsequent processing, and in particular to a method and apparatus to receive a bulk load of randomly oriented sugarcane stalks and to thereafter deliver the stalks to a selected work station in cleaned condition, chopped into uniform, relatively shorter lengths. A secondary function of the invention is to arrange for the chopped stalks to be aligned longitudinally in a common feed direction.
The present application is directed to a portion of a system for processing sugarcane. The system, as a whole, embraces various stages involving feeding, splitting and depithing of the stalks with subsequent separation of the sugar from the pith.
The present application is directed to the above discussed feeding portion of the system. This portion is intended to receive a bulk load of stalks from a suitable source, such as for example a rail car or any other conventional source of delivery of sugarcanes from the fields and to deliver the stalks at the sugar recovery plant in cleaned condition, with the individual canes chopped into relatively shorter lengths. As a secondary or collateral purpose, the chopped stalks are arranged to be aligned in parallel, longitudinal relation traveling in a common feed direction to a delivery point. Although the present system has, for general informational purposes, been described with reference to one particular sugarcane processing system for which it is suitable, it will be appreciated that use of the present system is not restricted to the particular system discussed, and that it may be used with equal facility in other sugar processing systems.
In preparing sugarcane stalks for subsequent processing, it has been known to utilize machinery adapted to automatically cut the cane stalks (which frequently grow in a bent and distorted configuration) into shorter lengths to facilitate subsequent processing. It has also been known to combine cutting of the stalks with a trash removal operation by blowing air through the mass of stalks to carry away trash. In this connection, references may be made to the following U.S. Pat.: Tiedtke, No. 2,621,461; Moragne, U.S. Pat. No. 2,544,275; and Faulkener, U.S. Pat. No. 1,990,172.
Such previous devices may not, however, prove suitable for the preparation of masses of randomly oriented sugarcanes delivered in bulk during the performance of large-scale sugar processing operations. For example, such prior devices have generally been adapted to receive stalks arranged in some form of pre-existing parallel alignment (either, for example, growing upright in rows in the fields or already cut down by laborers and laid in horizontal, parallel rows) permitting the stalks to be fed transversely of their length directly to cutting knives usually disposed in spaced parallel relation. Such prior devices would not be suitable for dealing with a large, tangled mass of randomly oriented sugarcane stalks, such as would be dumped in bulk from a railway car or the like. Furthermore, even if such randomly oriented stalks were fed directly into spaced parallel cutting knives, it is likely that a significant proportion of the stalks, due to this random situation of the mass, would encounter the knives at a relatively oblique inclination so that the chopped stalks would be of widely varying, unequal lengths.
It would therefore be desirable, and unobvious in view of the teachings of the prior art, to provide a system for aligning the stalks in parallel relation so that they may be fed uniformly to equally spaced cutting knives to provide uniform chopped lengths of stalk.
It has been proposed in other environments, such as canning, to align a mass of randomly oriented tubular articles (metal cans) by feeding the articles along a series of successively more rapidly moving conveyors aligned in a single feed direction, with successive conveyors being downwardly spaced from each other, so that the articles experience concurrent falling downstream jerking motions tending eventually to align them longitudinally in the feed direction. Although the arrangment is generally satisfactory for straight, tubular, manufactured articles such as the aforementioned metal cans, particular problems arise in the handling of naturally grown sugarcane stalks. A high proportion of stalks grow in a bent and twisted configuration which causes the stalks to become closely tangled together during their transportation in bulk from the fields. In this condition, many of the stalks are likely to have their bent portions hooked about other cane stalks in such relation as to permit the interengaged canes to be freed only by movement of the stalks within the mass in a direction transversely of the direction of travel thereof. However, prior aligning systems, of the type described, provide dislodging forces only in the one direction of travel of the mass of stalks, which would leave many of the canes firmly entangled.
Another problem particularly associated with bulk masses of sugarcane stalks transported from the fields may arise due to the presence, amongst the stalks, of heavy debris such as large rocks and the like. If not removed, such debris may cause serious damage to other portions of the apparatus such as the cutting knives. It is advisable, therefore, that provision be made for the early removal of such unwanted, heavy debris from the mass of stalks. Other lighter trash such as leaves, broken fragments of stalk and the like are advisably removed at some other point in the process.
For these, and other reasons, there is a real need at the present time for a method and apparatus for receiving a bulk mass of randomly oriented sugarcane stalks, detrashing the cane, that is, removing extraneous material such as rocks, field dirt, tramp metal and leaves, and then delivering the cane for subsequent processing.